I have a 2000 civic hatch, got new rims, 15x7 44+ offset, work emotion cr kai.

I kind of want to retain the same height as my last set up on hx wheels, which I ran a tire size of 185/65.
I'm deciding between 205/55 or 195/55.

I'm thinking of going 195/55 because I want my car to sit a little higher (or close to what it was on the hx's I got on now) so that I can lower my car a little bit more without having to worry about scraping my front lip off. However, people are telling me to go with the lower profile look of 205/55, but I'm not sure how much thinner this tire is going to be. I need opinions and just overall experiences, let me know what tire you would choose, because I'm debating between the two.

 

205 is just wider than 195
the thickness of the tires are the same, which is 55

 

What he said the first number is the width of the tire... Keep the overall circumference the same as stock and you will be good to go...

 

actually the sidewall height is not the same. its close though.


the 195/55 will be closer to the original tire size. the 205/55 will be just slightly taller than the 185/65's.

 

WRONG!

the sidewall size for civics running a 15" wheels to be closest to stock is a 50 series sidewall. 55's are for 14's, 60's for 13". the width of the tire has no effect on how tall the tire is at all... i dont know where you got that information. i would run 205/50/15 for your tire size and call it a day.

 

The width of the tire in fact does have an effect on the sidewall height. The sidewall number in tire sizes is a ratio, which is multiplied by the width to give you the sidewall height. Here is some more information:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete...e.jsp?techid=7

 

i do realize that... and i do work for les schwab tire company so i deal with tires everyday of my life. what you have to consider also is most wheels are not a true 15 or 16 inch wheels. more like 14.7 or 15.8 inches.

 

the sidewall height is the aspect ratio. that is a percentage of the tire width. he was asking about the 205/55-15 and 195/55-15. 55% of 205 and 195 is going to be different. deal with it.

 

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

Their tire calc says that 195/55/15 is a near perfect match. Although to be honest you can choose from 195/50, 205/50 I'd leave out the 205/55 unless there are better tire choices for that size. Go to that link i gave you you'll see what i mean.

 

wait...so 195/55 would make my car sit higher? I called autobacs today and the guy that works in the tire department told me that the 195/55 will make my car sit higher by 1/4 of an inch compared to normal stock height. He said 205/50 would work better, but didn't say why. Any answers for this or confirmation this is true, and why go 205/55 over 195/55 (besides the fact the latter being more expensive).

 

i run 205/50/15's and thier really not that low profile of a tire my old wheels not on my civic ran 40 series tires now that low you feel every bump and crack on the road i personally would run the 205's never had a problem with them

 

I run 205/50-15's on my 99 hatch and they are slightly shorter and wider than the stock 195/55-15 tires. Not by much, just barely though. If you want the closest to stock then use the 195/55. The 205/55-15 is about a 1/2" taller than the stock size